Following-up on this request, this letter provides an answer based on readily available information 1.

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1 Danièle NOUY Chair of the Supervisory Board Mr Sven Giegold Member of the European Parliament European Parliament 6, rue Wiertz B-147 Brussels Frankfurt am Main, 17 December 214 Re: Your question of 3 November 214 Honourable Member of the European Parliament, dear Mr Giegold, As a follow up to my public hearing at the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament on 3 November 214, you asked for the development over time (e.g. since 28) of the share of sovereign exposures (sovereign of the respective home state of each bank) in percent of CET1 of individual banks. Following-up on this request, this letter provides an answer based on readily available information 1. By combining data published by the European Banking Authority (EBA) 2 with data from an external data provider (SNL Financial 3 ), it is possible to derive for 8 large European banks from end- 21 to end-213 the evolution of the ratio of home sovereign exposure to Core Tier 1 (CT1) capital (which can be considered a reasonable approximation for phased-in CET1). This ratio provides insights in the solvency risk associated with a bank s home sovereign exposure. It is however significantly impacted by the extent to which the bank generates and retains earnings, 1 To cover the whole period and more than 8 banks would require collecting this information from NCAs, which may not necessarily have it. 2 The 211 and 214 EU-wide stress-testing exercises with reference dates 31/12/21 and 31/12/213 respectively, and the 213 EUwide transparency exercise with reference dates 31/12/212 and 3/6/213. For this analysis, the sample has been restricted to the 8 banks for which data on sovereign exposures and Core Tier 1 capital are available over the last three years (the total sample size exceeds 8 in the EBA exercises). 3 SNL Financial is a private company based in the United States which collects and standardises financial information provided by a large range of private firms (including banks). European Central Bank Tel.: Frankfurt am Main Fax: Germany info@ecb.europa.eu Website:

2 and changes in this ratio also reflect the dynamics of the bank s capital position and not only an active investment strategy of the bank towards home sovereign exposure. For instance, large credit losses would increase the bank s ratio irrespective of the underlying investment strategy. Against this background, the historical evolution of the ratio of home sovereign exposures over banks total assets, which is not subject to such influences, has also been investigated as a complementary view on the development of home sovereign exposures. Here as well, to the best of my knowledge, comparable data are not available, or not provided in sufficient detail, before 21 from available sources. For the two above-mentioned ratios, you will find in the appendix, the distribution of the absolute changes between end-21 and end-213, both at bank-level (Figures 1 and 2) and at countrylevel (Figures 3 and 4). The correlation between both ratios is presented in Figure. Finally, the bank-specific ratios for 21Q4 and 213Q4 (in level and difference) are provided in Table 1. Four main conclusions can be drawn from these figures: The evolution of both ratios is extremely heterogeneous across banks within Europe, as well as within each country (Figures 1 to 4). The countries with the largest increase in their banks average ratio 4 to CT1 are Cyprus, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. This cross-country comparison should, however, be interpreted with caution as the banks featured in the sample cover the national banking sectors to a different and sometimes insufficient degree. For most of the banks, changes in sovereign exposures over CT1 capital and over total assets appear strongly correlated (Figure ). The additional information of the complementary ratio (i.e. of home sovereign exposures over total assets) is therefore limited. This mainly reflects the leading role of the numerator (i.e. sovereign exposures) in the evolution of both ratios, and the weak relationship between changes in home sovereign exposures and changes in bank s capital or total assets. On average, banks with the highest ratios of home sovereign exposure over Core Tier 1 capital experienced the strongest decrease in their ratios over (Figure 6). Yours sincerely, Danièle Nouy 4 We use the weighted average per country, i.e. the ratio of the aggregated exposure of banks of that country to their home sovereign and their aggregated CT1 capital.

3 Appendix: Figure 1: Absolute change in the ratio of a bank s home sovereign exposure over Core Tier 1 capital (at bank-level) Note: for the purpose of readability, only half of the sample is reported in the chart below. Results for all banks are provided in Table 1. 2 Absolute change in exposure to the sovereign home state (213Q4-21Q4), Ratio to Core Tier 1 capital [percentage points] DE29 NL IT42 GR3 LU4 GR32 AT2 NO1 SE84 SI7 GB89 PT6 FR13 DK11 DE17 FI12 GB88 SE8 FR14 IT4 AT3 PT3 AT1 GB9 IE38 CY7 GB91 DE2 IT43 EBA bank code Figure 2: Absolute change in the ratio of a bank s home sovereign exposure over the bank s total assets (at bank-level) Note: for the purpose of readability, only half of the sample is reported in the chart below. Results for all banks are provided in Table 1. 1 Absolute change in exposure to the sovereign home state (213Q4-21Q4), Ratio to total assets [percentage points] 1-1 PL2 NL HU36 SE86 DE18 LU4 SE84 DK11 ES6 DE27 DK8 FI12 SE87 SE8 MT46 DE2 PT4 IT41 ES6 FR1 AT3 IE38 ES69 PT6 DE28 IE39 IE37 IT43 SI8 EBA bank code

4 Figure 3: Change in the ratio of banks home sovereign exposure over the banks Core Tier 1 capital (at country-level) Note: The light blue boxes represent the min-max range of absolute changes in banks ratios per country between 213Q4 and 21Q4. Min-Max range of absolute changes in banks' home state exposure (ratio to Core Tier 1 capital), 213Q4-21Q4, per country [8 banks] AT (3) BE () CY (1) DE (1) DK (4) ES (4) FI (1) FR (3) GB (4) GR (4) HU (1) IE (3) IT () LU (1) MT (1) NL (2) NO (1) PL (1) PT (3) SE (4) SI (2) Country (with number of banks per country) Figure 4: Change in the ratio of banks home sovereign exposures over the banks total assets (at country-level) Note: The light blue boxes represent the min-max range of absolute changes in banks ratios per country between 213Q4 and 21Q Min-Max range of absolute changes in banks' home state exposure (ratio to total assets), 213Q4-21Q4, per country [8 banks] AT (3) BE () CY (1) DE (1) DK (4) ES (4) FI (1) FR (3) GB (4) GR (4) HU (1) IE (3) IT () LU (1) MT (1) NL (2) NO (1) PL (1) PT (3) SE (4) SI (2) Country (with number of banks per country) Figure : Change in the ratio of home sovereign exposures over CT1 capital vs. change in the ratio of home sovereign exposure over total assets (bank by bank) Absolute change in sovereign exposures over CT1 capital vs. over Total Assets [8 banks] 1 y-axis: Absolute change in ratio over Total Assets [213Q4-21Q4, percentage points] 1 y =.177x R² = x-axis: Absolute change in ratio over CT1 capital [213Q4-21Q4, percentage points]

5 Figure 6: Change in the ratio of home sovereign exposures over CT1 [213Q4-21Q4] vs 21Q4 ratio in level Figure 7: Change in the ratio of home sovereign exposures over total assets [213Q4-21Q4] vs 21Q4 ratio in level y-axis: Absolute change in the ratio of home sovereign exposure over CT1 [213Q4-21Q4, percentage points] Absolute change in ratio of banks' home sovereign exposures over CT1 capital vs. 21Q4 ratio in level [8 banks] y = x R² = , 1,2 1,4 x-axis: 21Q4 ratio of home sovereign exposure over CT1 [percentage points] y-axis: Absolute change in the ratio of home sovereign exposure over total assets [213Q4-21Q4, percentage points] Absolute change in ratio of banks' home sovereign exposures over total assets vs. 21Q4 ratio in level [8 banks] y = x R² = x-axis: 21Q4 ratio of home sovereign exposure over total assets [percentage points] Figure 8: 213Q4 Core Tier 1 capital vs. 213Q4 Common Equity Tier 1 capital Note: 213Q4 CET1 figures computed as of first day of application: 1/1/214, and in accordance with CRD4/CRR transitional arrangements. The straight blue line corresponds to the 4-degree line, where Core Tier 1 equals Common Equity Tier 1. 12, 213Q4 CET1 capital vs 213 Q4 CT1 capital [8 banks] Core Tier 1 Capital, SNL Financials [mln EUR] 1, 8, 6, 4, 2, CET1 = CT1 1, 2, 3, 4,, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1, Common Equity Tier 1 capital, EBA [mln EUR]

6 Table 1: Ratio of banks home sovereign exposure over CT1 and total assets from 21Q4 to 213Q4 Exposure to the sovereign home state, 21Q4 (percentages) Exposure to the sovereign home state, 213Q4 (percentages) Change in exposure to the sovereign home state, 213Q4-21Q4 (percentage points) Bank Country EBA bank code Ratio to Core Tier 1 capital Ratio to total assets Ratio to Core Tier 1 capital Ratio to total assets Ratio to Core Tier 1 capital Ratio to total assets ERSTE BANK GROUP (EBG) AT AT RAIFFEISEN BANK INTERNATIONAL (RBI) AT AT OESTERREICHISCHE VOLKSBANK AG AT AT BANK OF CYPRUS PUBLIC CO LTD CY CY DEUTSCHE BANK AG DE DE COMMERZBANK AG DE DE LANDESBANK BADEN-WURTTEMBERG DE DE DZ BANK AG DT. ZENTRAL-GENOSSENSCHAFTSBANK DE DE BAYERISCHE LANDESBANK DE DE NORDDEUTSCHE LANDESBANK -GZ- DE DE22 1, HSH NORDBANK AG, HAMBURG DE DE LANDESBANK BERLIN AG DE DE DEKABANK DEUTSCHE GIROZENTRALE, FRANKFURT DE DE WGZ BANK AG WESTDT. GENO. ZENTRALBK, DDF DE DE29 1, DANSKE BANK DK DK JYSKE BANK DK DK SYDBANK DK DK NYKREDIT DK DK BANCO SANTANDER S.A. ES ES BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGENTARIA S.A. (BBVA) ES ES BANCO DE SABADELL, S.A. ES ES BANKINTER, S.A. ES ES OP-POHJOLA GROUP FI FI BNP PARIBAS FR FR CREDIT AGRICOLE FR FR BPCE FR FR ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP plc GB GB HSBC HOLDINGS plc GB GB BARCLAYS plc GB GB LLOYDS BANKING GROUP plc GB GB EFG EUROBANK ERGASIAS S.A. GR GR NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE GR GR ALPHA BANK GR GR PIRAEUS BANK GROUP GR GR OTP BANK NYRT. HU HU ALLIED IRISH BANKS PLC IE IE BANK OF IRELAND IE IE IRISH LIFE AND PERMANENT IE IE INTESA SANPAOLO S.p.A IT IT UNICREDIT S.p.A IT IT BANCA MONTE DEI PASCHI DI SIENA S.p.A IT IT BANCO POPOLARE - S.C. IT IT UNIONE DI BANCHE ITALIANE SCPA (UBI BANCA) IT IT BANQUE ET CAISSE D'EPARGNE DE L'ETAT LU LU BANK OF VALLETTA (BOV) MT MT RABOBANK NEDERLAND NL NL SNS BANK NV NL NL DNB NOR BANK ASA NO NO POWSZECHNA KASA OSZCZEDNOSCI BANK POLSKI S.A. ( PL PL CAIXA GERAL DE DEPOSITOS, SA PT PT BANCO COMERCIAL PORTUGUES, SA (BCP OR MILLENNIUPT PT BANCO BPI, SA PT PT NORDEA BANK AB (PUBL) SE SE SKANDINAVISKA ENSKILDA BANKEN AB (PUBL) (SEB) SE SE SVENSKA HANDELSBANKEN AB (PUBL) SE SE SWEDBANK AB (PUBL) SE SE NOVA LJUBLJANSKA BANKA D.D. (NLB d.d.) SI SI NOVA KREDITNA BANKA MARIBOR D.D. (NKBM d.d.) SI SI Sources: EBA, SNL Financial and ECB calculations.